Journey to the Unknown

by Jacqueline Francis

  She waited for Kevin to sit down, but before she could walk away, he grabbed her wrist.

  “You can sit here. You don’t have to eat alone.”

  “That’s kind of you, Kevin.” She gently tugged her hand out of his grasp. “But you don’t have to do anything for me out of pity anymore.”

  “Jasmin—”

  She didn’t spare him another glance as she walked away and found another seat on the other side of the restaurant. Little Texan was a bit of a contradictory name because the servings were meant to cater for people the size of Shaquille O’ Neil and not the average Joe.

  She had just placed an order for a burger and fries when she heard someone clear his throat beside her. She looked up and saw two guys and two girls, all appearing to be around the same age as her.

  “This is our table,” one of the girls said flatly.

  Jasmin made a show of looking around the table. “I don’t see your name on it.”

  She rolled her eyes. “We’re regulars here, and we always sit at this table, so unless you want us to call management—”

  “Fine,” Jasmin said, shifting along the long bench to get off. She really wasn’t in the mood to have a fight over a stupid table.

  Before she even made it to the edge, one of the guys, the blonde one, was already sitting down and shifting towards her. “Stop being a bitch, Megan.” He looked over at Jasmin and smiled. “I can see you’re not from around here. Care to join us for lunch?”

  She really didn’t have much of a choice. He had her blocked in. She moved back to her original spot on the other end and he shifted with her so that Megan could sit down beside him. The other guy, the dark-haired one, sat directly in front of her and the other girl sat beside him.

  “I’m Brad,” the blonde said, giving her his hand. She shook it and he went on to introduce the others. “You’ve already met Megan. That’s April and that’s Antonio…but call him Tony. He’s in a phase where he thinks denying his entire Mexican heritage will help him land an acting job. I know. It’s dumb.”

  Jasmin smiled as she looked around at all of them. There were very good looking people here in Texas. The two girls were nothing like the Andys from Vegas, but still very pretty in that girl next door kind of way. Brad was tall and built like a tank. She didn’t want to stereotype, but he looked like he played football. He had a warm look about him, caramel eyes with a playful grin. Very cute. Antonio, on the other hand, was thinner and shorter, and definitely had a face for TV. Girls would swoon over that one. So while Brad was sexier (body wise), Tony was by far better looking. It was strange, though. Neither of them had the same appeal as Kevin.

  “What’s your name?” Brad asked.

  “Jasmintha.” She remembered the trouble Kevin had with the pronunciation and decided to give them an alternative. “You can call me Jasmin.”

  “You talk funny,” April said. “Where are you from?”

  “South Africa.”

  “Oh, you’re from Africa,” Brad said. “I always wanted to go to Africa.”

  She’d heard a few Americans say it in that way, like the whole continent was a country.

  “So do you guys have lions just walking around?”

  She grinned. “Yeah. I actually have a pet leopard. His name is Jeff.”

  “Really?”

  “She’s messing with you, dude,” Tony said.

  Brad nudged her with his elbow and smiled. “Funny.”

  A waitress came to the table and delivered their meals and she found it strange that they hadn’t even ordered, but then she remembered that they were regulars here. The burger placed in front of her was massive.

  “How do you guys eat this?” she asked. “The patty is bigger than my face.”

  She generally chose to eat with her hands, but this burger demanded the use of a fork and knife. They continued talking as they ate, all of them asking her about her life in Africa and her current road trip.

  “The weather is much better back home than it is here,” Jasmin said, slicing off another sliver of her huge burger. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the cold. It’s—”

  “I just want to be on you,” Tony cut in.

  “Excuse me?” Jasmin asked, looking up at him with confusion.

  “All I’m thinking about is getting into your pants right now. An Indian and Mexican—do you know how hot that would be?”

  She didn’t take offense because it didn’t seem like he meant it.

  “You have to forgive Tony,” Brad said with a sheepish smile. “He doesn’t realize that some of his comments are extremely inappropriate.”

  She could definitely relate to that. “Hot and spicy,” she agreed, looking over at him. “Like jalapenos and chili.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” And when he reached over and took some of her fries from her plate, she felt like she had found a kindred spirit. They just seemed to have an instant connection.

  “And then you wanna be an actor,” Jasmin continued, “and I wanna be a rapper. We’re actually Hollywood’s next hot couple in the making.”

  “You wanna be a rapper?” he asked with fake adoration. “You’re my dream girl. I think I love you.”

  “Would you stop encouraging him?” Brad chuckled, nudging her again.

  “So we’re going to a Rodeo now,” April said. “Why don’t you come with us?”

  Jasmin felt a smile light up her face. “Sure. I’d like that. I’ve never been to one before.”

  After paying for the meal, they shuffled off the benches and headed for the door. Brad, Megan, and April walked on ahead, but Tony waited for her and slung his arm over her shoulder.

  “So when we get there” he said, “I want you to take tips on riding, but at the same time I want you to take note that riding a bull is very different to riding a stallion.”

  She laughed at his frankness. “Do women actually fall for that?”

  “What? My Charm?” He adamantly shook his head. “Hell, no. But when I find one that does, I’ll know she’s the one for me.”

  “Jasmin.”

  She’d been so caught up in the conversation that she hadn’t realized they were passing Kevin’s table and the look on his face was one she hadn’t seen before. Not grumpy, but definitely not happy.

  “You know this guy?” Tony asked.

  “Yeah, we’re…” She had to put proper thought into describing what they were. “We’re traveling together.”

  “Hi.” Tony removed his arm from around her shoulder and extended it to Kevin. “I’m Tony.”

  “Kevin,” he replied, shaking his hand. “You guys going somewhere?”

  “Yeah,” Tony replied on her behalf. “A Rodeo. You wanna join us?”

  He didn’t answer and Tony must have picked up on the tension between them because he looked from her to Kevin then back to her again.

  “Should I give you two a minute to talk?”

  Kevin opened his mouth to respond but she beat him to it. “It’s not necessary,” she replied with a smile. “Kevin doesn’t like to talk…and he’s already said whatever he needed to say.”

  She said nothing more and headed out the door with Tony. The drive to the Amarillo Civic Centre was a short one. Going to her first rodeo wasn’t what she’d expected, but it was definitely an experience she would never forget. Oddly enough, it was an indoor event and the center was crowded, filled with people wearing Stetsons and waving American flags. Some of the muscled cowboys she saw made her consider moving to Texas permanently. The excitement that filled the air was contagious and Jasmin couldn’t stop smiling. They seated themselves on the blue plastic chairs about five rows from the front and she watched in anticipation as they rode horses across the dirt and chased bulls with lassos. It was amazing to watch.

  The supply of junk food never stopped and April even convinced her to try her first corndog. Sometime during the afternoon, Tony found himself another dream girl and was trying, with little luck, to charm her pants off. Jasmin spent most o
f the afternoon talking to Brad. He was a shy guy, and she may have been stereotyping again, but she didn’t expect someone who looked like him to be so reserved. There were a few stilted moments because he didn’t get her sense of humor, but he was still fun to talk to. He was a gentleman, offering her his jacket when the temperature began to drop. He was also very mild-mannered and it did make her wonder how he and Tony got along, because their personalities were on complete opposite sides of the spectrum.

  After the rodeo, Tony was still trying with dream girl two and while Megan and April were in the restroom, Brad pulled her to a quiet corner.

  “So I wanted to ask you something,” he began nervously. “Um…Tony’s parents are out of town…and he’s having a party tonight.” He rubbed one hand against the other as if his palms were sweaty. “I was…wondering if…you wanted to come…with me.”

  This was an odd predicament. She liked him, but not in that way and she didn’t want him to get the wrong impression if she said yes. So her first instinct was to say no, but the thought of sitting alone with Kevin for the rest of night in awkward silence was enough to change her mind. Besides, he couldn’t really get the wrong impression; she’d told him earlier that she would be leaving Amarillo the next day.

  “Sure,” she replied. “Why not?”

  * * * * *

  Three days. It had been going on like this for three days and Kevin was reaching his breaking point. Apart from the argument they’d had the night before last, she barely said one word. She was polite and pleasant. Even during their argument the other night, she hadn’t raised her voice. And even though her words were jagged, her tone was always that of pleasant indifference, completely devoid of any emotion. She hadn’t said one mean thing to him so far.

  It was like they were strangers now. She spoke only when spoken to. She wasn’t being Jasmin. She wasn’t rambling. She wasn’t annoying the crap out of him. She wasn’t divulging information that was way too personal to be shared and the silence was killing him. He hadn’t known her for very long but in the weeks that had passed, this was what Jasmin had become to him:

  When kettles were first invented, there was nothing inside it to stop the electric current to the heating element when the water reached its boiling point. So if left unattended, it would just boil and boil until eventually it bubbled over, causing a hot mess. The destruction didn’t end there. Sometimes the kettle blew a fuse. Sometimes it caused a fire. After all the mishaps, a man named John Taylor came up with the brilliant idea of a bimetallic thermostat. When the water reaches boiling point, the thermostat snaps open, pushes a lever to trip the circuit, and the kettle safely shuts off.

  That was Jazz. His thermostat. The little switch that stopped the boil inside him before it bubbled over. When she spoke, it was impossible to think of anything other than the melodic sound of her muddled accent. He didn’t think about Perry. He didn’t think about the night he lost him. It made him forget, even if it was only for a little while. All the chaos, all the confusion, she made him forget. Her bubbly laugh and constant blabbering was the switch that shut all that off. She wasn’t the element. She didn’t cause the boil; she just stopped it before it got out of control.

  Sometimes, though, she forgot what she was. She tried to be something more. Friends with benefits, she’d suggested. Sex with no attachments. The way he felt about her made him incapable of giving her one without the other. Like the dick he was, he lashed out to remind her—and himself—that she was just a thermostat.

  In true Jasmin style, she was supposed to have absorbed it, drained it until she felt nothing, and moved along. One perky smile and things were supposed to go back to normal. She wasn’t supposed to stop speaking to him and now he was afraid that he might have broken the thermostat. Without it he felt like he might blow a fuse, like destruction was inevitable.

  He was tired of this. The tension between them seemed to be getting worse by the day and he was tired of the fake pleasantries. The fruits of his labor. He’d pushed and now he had to sit back and accept the ramifications of his actions. It wasn’t easy. He’d sat at the Little Texan, watching two guys openly flirt with her. He’d never been the jealous type and now he was stewing in it. She’d left with them, leaving him alone to wonder what she was doing. Flirting. Touching. Kissing.

  When he saw Tony’s arm around her, he almost lost it. It drove him crazy all afternoon and just when he thought the torture was over, she came in, shrugged off a jacket that wasn’t hers and walked straight into the bathroom without saying one word to him.

  He was going to blow a fuse, because he wanted answers when he had no right to ask any questions. The second she came out of the bathroom, he was on edge. She was dressed to go out which meant that he was going to spend the rest of the night driving himself crazy with more questions.

  His eyes stayed on her as she walked to the mirror on the other side of the small room and he watched as she began applying her makeup. Deep red on her plump lips. Thick black liner accentuating the lightness of her eyes. It wasn’t the conservative sexy he’d seen in Vegas. This was outright sexy, daring, the type of look that would draw all eyes to her. And the black halter top and blue skinny jeans she wore meant that those eyes weren’t just going to be drawn to her face.

  She noticed him watching her, but said nothing as she put on her earrings—Indian-style jewelry she’d bought in Gallup, small silver hoops with a dangling red feather. Her phone rang and she put it on speaker so she could still talk as she brushed her hair.

  “Hi, Brad,” she said.

  “Hi. Are you almost ready?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there soon. I don’t know where it is, so I’ll just put it into the GPS.”

  “I’ll come pick you up,” Brad put in quickly. “What kind of guy doesn’t pick a girl up for a date?”

  “It’s not necess—”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  She hung up and carried on brushing her hair while Kevin sat on the bed, taking in deep breaths to calm down. He knew he had no right, absolutely no right to ask her anything, but for the sake of his own sanity, he needed to say something.

  Dan: He’s ticking, Bob. He’s ticking.

  “You’re going on a date tonight?” he asked.

  She glanced briefly at him in the mirror before she answered. “It’s a house party.”

  He knew all about house parties. He knew about the kind of hookups that happened at house parties. She got nervous from just kissing, so he was trying to convince himself that she wasn’t ready for anything past first base. But she was. She’d told him that she didn’t want him to stop, she just wanted him to slow down. Friends with benefits was her idea.

  His head was spinning, his palms stinging with restlessness. She hadn’t spoken to him for three days and he didn’t know if he’d pushed her into a frame of mind where she would do something completely erratic.

  “What time will you be back?” he asked apprehensively.

  “Probably tomorrow morning.”

  Dan: Morning? Did she say morning? That Brad guy could have had her five times over by morning.

  Bob: One look at her and I can tell you that Brad is gonna be all over that. She’s fine as hell! And she’s wearing them wiggle, wiggle jeans, Dan. Someone’s gonna be burning up the sheets tonight.

  Dan: And do you know who’s not gonna be getting any tonight?

  Bob: Our boy.

  Dan: Our BOY, Bob. He’s just gonna sit here all by himself, wishing it was him.

  Bob: Well, we’re in the semi-finals and strategy is important at this stage of the game, so let’s watch him work through his options and see if he can convince her to stay.

  Dan: Great idea. Lets’ start with option one: logic.

  “Jasmin, we’re leaving tomorrow. You can’t go out drinking then get behind the wheel.”

  “So we’ll leave later, or even the next day,” she replied with a nonchalant shrug.

  “You don’t even know these people. You’r
e gonna jump into a car with a guy you don’t know, drive to a place you’ve never been to before, and—”

  “Isn’t that exactly what happened with you?”

  That threw him off. He actually didn’t have a counter argument, so he decided to stop beating around the bush and ask her what he really wanted to know. “Are you going to sleep with him?”

  The question came out of left field and totally surprised her. “That’s really none of your business.” She read the scowl on his face and gave a tight smile. “As I said before, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to stay. Quite honestly, I don’t know why you haven’t left yet.”

  “Same reason why you haven’t asked me to.”

  He wanted her to acknowledge the reason. She hadn’t asked him to leave because they had something—something volatile, something toxic, but still something. For a second, her eyes flicked to his and he thought he might have gotten through to her, but she immediately turned away, making it clear that he hadn’t.

  Bob: Well, option one just crashed and burned. Let’s move on to option two: force.

  “You’re not going,” he said firmly. “It’s stupid and dangerous…You’re not going.”

  She walked to the other bed, sat down and began pulling on her boots over her skinny jeans. “Really?” she asked with an unimpressed smirk. “And in which universe do you think you have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do? If I want to go to a party, I can. If I want to sleep with…whoever, I can. I don’t need your permission.”

  Dan: She’s asking for it. She’s literally begging for it. Option three: the asshole.

  His jaw clenched with impatience. “Are you so lonely, so desperate, that you’d go out and sleep with the first guy you meet, some guy you barely know?”

  Brain-drain twitch, but she covered it up quickly with a smile. “If I remember correctly, you did the same thing with Candy. Name ring a bell? Pretty blonde girl from Vegas.”